Researcher Profile: Tamara Franklin

Dr Tamara Franklin was born in Montreal, raised in Barbados and Toronto. She went to school here in The Maritimes but moved away for a while to continue her education, before returning here, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Having completed her undergraduate studies at Dalhousie in Psychology and Neuroscience, she stayed at Dalhousie to complete her MSc in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology (now the Department of Medical Neuroscience). After that she moved to Zurich, Switzerland to complete her PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Z). Continuing her European experience, she did a post-doc at the European Molecular Biology Laboratories, in the Mouse Biology Unit in Monterotondo, Italy.

Dr Franklin’s PhD research focused on how early stress in mice can have multigenerational consequences by altering chemical modifications to DNA in sperm cells. Her post-doctoral training focused on how negative social experiences result in learned social avoidance by affecting the function of a specific (cortical-brainstem) pathway in the mouse brain. 

Dr Franklin - and her team’s - research at Dalhousie now uses mouse models to understand how the brain generates appropriate social behaviours, and the brain differences that lead to social symptoms of autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease. They are also currently looking at how stressful experiences during adolescence change adult social behaviours, including how exposure to stress experienced in pre-pubertal adolescence negatively impacts later parental behaviours in mice.

When she is not in the lab, Dr Franklin enjoys spending time with her two Australian Shepherds, knitting, and exploring Nova Scotia’s wonderful beaches in the summer.

You can find out more Dr Franklin’s research at her research website (dal.ca/sites/franklin-lab.html) and you can follow her on Twitter at @LabFranklin.